San Diego Venture Group hires its first president

David Titus will help the organization raise funds

The San Diego Venture Group has hired its first full- time president with the aim of helping the region’s start-up companies get their share of the shrinking venture capital pie.

David Titus, managing partner of San Diego’s Windward Ventures, will run the organization, which in the past has relied on volunteers and limited its role to organizing monthly educational events.

Titus said he plans to continue with the Venture Group’s current programs, but he also aims to get the organization more directly involved in priming the pump for deals.

Initial goals include establishing a San Diego venture capital networking group patterned after the Western Association of Venture Capitalists in the Bay Area, where Titus was once an officer.

He also wants to make the San Diego Venture Group an information resource for venture capitalists from outside the region looking to invest in local companies. About 85 percent of the venture capital in San Diego comes from VC firms based elsewhere.

For example, an outside venture capitalist coming to San Diego to talk with one company might get information on one or two more firms seeking funding, said Titus.

“We want to make it as effective and efficient as possible” for outside investors to fund San Diego companies, he said.

The move comes as venture capital has decreased dramatically over the past few years. According to a fourth-quarter Innovation Report by Connect, a technology industry trade group, San Diego’s venture capital funding dropped 51 percent in the past four years, based on a three-quarter moving average of funding data.

“Across the nation, venture capital firms have raised dramatically less capital than three years ago,” said Titus. “If less money is going into the top of the funnel, fewer companies are going to get funding.”